The salary scales of the all the three directors are being doubled with effect from April 1, 1999, subject to approval from shareholders. While the salary of Khurody now jumps to Rs 1.5 lakh a month, that of Singh and Bhandarkar rises to Rs 1 lakh per month.

The directors will also be eligible to a commission on profits, upto a maximum of one per cent of total profits. Though this provision had been made in 1994, in view of the company's poor performance, no commission has been paid to any director yet. The provision is now being extended by five more years till fiscal-ended March 2005.

The company's board has also decided to allow Khurody to retain the excess salary of Rs 7.83 lakh paid to him during the 1998-99 fiscal. As per the Companies Act, if in any year a company has no profits or theprofits are inadequate, it cannot pay to a managerial person in excess of Rs 87,500 a month, where the company's equity capital exceeds Rs 15 crore.

The official can, however, be allowed to retain the excess remuneration once it is approved by the central Government and shareholders of the company.

Voltas had slipped into the red in 1996-97, its first ever loss, when it posted a net loss of Rs 16.82 crore. In the following year, it managed to stem the extent of losses to Rs 9.55 crore through sale of fixed assets.

In the last fiscal, the company finally climbed back into the black with a profit after tax of Rs 14.12 crore. It was aided to a large extent, once again, by a high other income of Rs 17.68 crore.

The high extraordinary income has been on account of sale of investments, fixed assets and increased rental incomes from the company's huge real estate assets.

For this, Voltas has now even set up a property cell to oversee optimum usage of real estate assets, and the Voltas board also has a realestate committee.

As part of the restructuring plan, the white goods division was hived off into a joint venture with Electrolux and the chemicals division was sold to a Rallis-subsidiary.